User Account Control in Windows 7

User Account Control (UAC) has been one of the big complaints about Windows Vista. It certainly was the butt of one of the cutest ‘I’m a Mac’ commercials. The truth is, as I have mentioned previously, Microsoft had to make some tough decisions in developing the new, modern operating system, and UAC was a way of protecting users from themselves… ‘Open virus-infected program… are you sure you want to open virus-infected program?’

I’m pretty sure if that were the extent of it, people would have been much more forgiving of UAC, but because it was so much more, it was difficult to put up with; ‘I want to manage my computer. Are you sure you want to manage your computer?’ or ‘I want to install a driver for my printer. Are you sure you want to install a driver for your printer?’ People were ignoring it because they were seeing far too often.

In Vista there were two settings for UAC… on or off, and a lot of its detractors spent a lot of time bragging that most users were disabling it outright. In reality about 12% of users did disable it, hardly most, but that is irrelevant. In Windows 7 there are different settings to UAC… and by default user input will not bring up UAC windows, only when programs try to access protected areas of the OS. Users will still have the option of enabling the full UAC or disabling it, but most should be satisfied with the happy medium.

There are scores of improvements to Windows 7 over Vista, many of which I will talk (and write) about over the next few months, but instead of waiting for it why not download the release candidate and see for yourselves. Get on board with Windows 7 now and be ready for the most secure desktop operating system that Microsoft has ever come out with.